Everyone who has traveled to The Netherlands and has at least a little bit of interest in art has heard of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and most tourists to the city make it a stop on their itinerary even if their interest in art isn't too extensive. Not that many foreign travelers, though, are familiar with the country’s other major art museum, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. While the Rijksmuseum’s mission is to collect and display the great art of the nation, the Boijmans Van Beuningen has no such set mission and covers includes works by artists from other nations as well. Housed in a building that looks a lot like Stockholm’s city hall in a large city park, the BVB is considered one of Europe’s most significant museums.

I have to admit to having been a little disappointed, though, since many of the galleries were closed for reshuffling the collection . It seems that instead of exhibiting paintings chronologically by era, school, or nation, the BVB is planning something new called "The Museum as Time Travel" in which works from different eras with some unifying characteristics will be displayed side-by-side or close to each other. At least that’s how I understand it. So that might mean a painting by Hieronymous Bosch (of which the museum owns several) might be hung beside one by Salvador Dali (of which the museum owns many) to illustrate the commonalities between Renaissance fantastical painting and twentieth century Surrealism. I’m not sure if I buy this newfangled way of doing things, but will reserve judgement until I see it somewhere.

Thus, most the galleries of paintings by the Old Master before the Dutch Golden Age along with most of those covering twentieth century art were closed for three months. Thus, the BVB has a much more extensive collection than my pictures suggest. On the other hand, though, the museum tried to make up for it with a major exhibition of “Crazy About Surrealism” in which it displayed all of the Surrealist work it owns as well as a huge set from four other large private and museum collections. So overall it was still a pretty good museum visit.